"Extinct" river dolphin...NOT

[jwuog]

Ah, good to read that the supposedly extinct dolphin of Yangtze River
is not extinct...yet

Here's the link to the article in NatGeo:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...i-dolphin.html

The score so far:

Nature: 0.5
Human: 99.5

[XnSdVd]

There is hope yet! Good post man.

[budak]

ecologically, the population of the dolphin is so small that it's effectively extinct – living dead. The gene pool is dangerously small, and with their slow rate of breeding, the animals will succumb to old age/sickness/other mishaps faster than they can reproduce. And besides, there's no sign that people in China will pollute, dam up or overfish the rivers any less. So where's the hope for the dolphin and the other species that share its habitat?

Paddlefish thought extinct: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...hina-fish.html

Thrid of fish species in Yellow River extinct: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ish-china.html

[jwuog]

True. But as long as there's a surviving population, there's a sliver of hope that the population can be revived, either through urgent conservation efforts or – clonning!
That's what we, as humans are good for: make and destroy things. So now, we make
dolphins.

Another more obscure way is – advertising! Through branding, we make the dolphin into an international symbol, just like the panda. With merchandising and advertisements, the Chinese, and the international community will grow to love the dolphin like they love pandas. Anymore mishap to the dolphin will trigger an international outcry. And more importantly, the dismay of the Chinese themselves.
– That will go a long way to save the dolphins.

[budak]

i don't think the Chinese (at least the govt there) care. They don't even care that their pursuit of economic growth is causing harm (from CO2 to pollution to health effects) to both local and global environments.

cloning, even if it could be done at a reasonable cost (and notice that it's been done mainly with well-known domestic animals and the failure rate is very very high) does nothing for the survival of a species. You need genetic diversity, not multiple animals with identical genetic profiles.

as mentioned, once a population falls below a certain threshold, it's as good as extinct, especially if it's a slow-breeding species where individuals will die off faster than they can reproduce.

there is absolutely no way humans can make a dolphin or any other existing creature. If it's extinct (or even extinct in the wild), it's as good as gone.

[illumnae]

not sure if this is a little off topic, but i'd like to point out that if a particular species is classified as "slow breeding where individuals will die off faster than they can reproduce", doesn't that mean that the species is doomed to extinction right from the start? even if there's a population of a million, if the breeding rate is slower than the replacement rate, the population will eventually die out.

the fact that the species was once a viable population just goes to show that it's possible to eventually replenish the species even with just a few breeding pairs. sure it'll take ages (perhaps decades, or even centuries) and the going is rough, and the chances of success are relatively slim, but i don't think it's fair to just write off all chances and say it's "as good as extinct". the possibility is still there, and efforts should still be made to achieve it.

[budak]

it's not an absolute rate, but a reasonable scenario based on what is known about a species. In nature, a certain % of a population dies every year, while sufficient new members are added to it by breeding pairs. With animals such as the dolphin, conditions are probably so bad that the numbers that die (as seen in the severe declines) each season far outweigh the rate at which they can reproduce.

you can of course try to remove all the animals for captive breeding. but that still leaves the issue of whether their habitat can be salvaged such that it can support a self-sustaining population. See http://www.baiji.org/in-depth/baiji/overview.html and http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2006/12/...olphin_rip.php